Sunday, March 2, 2008

looking back picking up


works from BFA thesis show, tape & string on wood and various materials, tallest at 11 feet, 1999

Feeling a need to write things down. Mind is cluttered with stuff, both art and unart related. Grieving hearts, suffering minds, and a broken friendship. Feel helpless. Also trying not to feel guilty about: being out of touch with people in real life but maintaining close contact to this virtual world. It is real to me, too. And is really the only public outlet for my art right now. Want it to be seen as a primary job that i report to on a regular basis. like everyone else who can't just take days off from work whenever they want to.

Many pieces of work scattered about, unfinished. I want to pick up the enthusiasm i had for making big things as when i was working on my thesis show years ago. a little embarrassed to say it's been nearly 10 years ago and i am still looking back, not quite done with what i have started then. I don't mean not done with the pieces themselves. They are finished works but they marked a new beginning for me, one that i stopped short of exploring. Went off towards a different path that was more space-conscious, more practical, and less in courage and timid in drive. Slowly, i find myself breaking out a little with this piece and that. And Now Fully, Consciously, Embracing it.

I want to get back to working more with string and wrapping and mixing mediums crossing disciplines, and just thinking bigger in general.


pop


pretty in pink


lady in red


touch me


pregnant


blue

13 comments

  1. I loved "blue" when I first saw it on your site.Didn't realize then, that you used tape....bizarre!
    And this spine of the "pregnant"-piece is stunning..feel my back aching...
    Wrapping and string...embracing...spiderish..just a view of my thought-crumbs..I like your work a lot!!
    Hurray to friendship...both, the real and the virtual one!

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  2. cheers, Uschi. thank you for your thought-crumbs. :). i like that phrase a lot. wrapping...embracing - didn't occur to me but so very appropriate! will ponder on spiderish though... ;).

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  3. sounds like you have lots to work through in your head, in your processes, in your artwork. i understand your blog guilt, i get it too, (have only seen one non blog friend socially in several months).

    the way i see it i'm not choosing blog friends over real life friends, i'm choosing manageable contact over no contact at all. i think that blog presence is just as valid as any other type. and of course, i'm glad you do blog, it's been so good to be allowed to see your work and read your words. I'm glad you are so open in this place.

    wishing you some spring weather to help brighten your days.

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  4. Big hugs of encouragement to you for your creative self. I know these feelings well :)

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  5. Dear Mien, It’s been ages since I’ve visited and now I can’t see how I could stay away! First: the blogging community is real to me too, for different reasons probably as I can’t get out much, but I understand how it can maintain and support, esp. artists who beaver away on their lonesome.
    I had my graduation show 10 years ago too, feels almost like a lifetime as things have changed so much for me, but I do see links to the work I make today, oblique links maybe, but there in the concerns if not the medium. I’m so glad you’re showing what you were up to then, such beautiful work. Esp. ‘blue’, like a 3D-drawing, the wrapped branches (?) leaning precariously against the wall look like they are still straining towards the light. The mystery of the gorgeous blue-wrapped bits, like an infectiously spreading glow. Love too the double shadows faintly ‘framing’ the branches. It’s all beautiful and wild and fragile. And ‘pregnant’ is just lovely, with the hint of coiling life held by that single curled line . Hope you’ll be able to link up with your enthusiasm, there’s so much here that I maybe see too in some of your etchings and drawings, the way you make lines that are alive and breathing.

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  6. Good. Good that you are suffering, good that you are re-thinking, good that you are discovering, good that you are remembering, good that you are stuggling. Good, good, good! Because it is what we do. We are not artists just because of the beuty in the world. And we are not artists just because there is pain. But giving expression to these things is always good for art, if hard on ourselves.
    I'm sorry that you are stuggling and I am sorry that you are suffering and I am so glad that you have a blog presence that is a little light for those of us who love to see your work and read your thoughts.
    X

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  7. So yes, now is the age when we dump off the timidity we pick up in our twenties. Was it us unconsciously trying to be all adult and responsible, or what?

    No matter! Let's go make mighty things! Out of strings! Cords on wires, then wired on cords, with sticks and strips and color fast with fun and funk! And maybe even some cooler, glummer bits for contrast.

    And yes, think about spiders indeed: they're named 'netmakers' in the languages I work with, and being online right now, we all know how much the word 'net' can mean, how much it can draw in, what it can connect to.

    In sum: we are all in this together, and look, just look, at all that joins us!

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  8. Having converations with my MFA tutors about contact with bloggers last week. They were intrigued by the fact that I didn't know people's real names, and that I was not concerned about 'really' seeing/touching the work I look at on here. Also the notion that are the people I talk to here real? How do I know that they and their work is not fictitious? It hadn't occured to me to question the authenticity of you all?! Am I too trusting? Is it a male thing to mistrust?
    It is for me a real issue of practicallity that I have more contact 'virtually' than face to face. I am at home at night, on my own, with child in bed, and so the contact I have on here is as real to me as any other - and crucial to my development as an artist, woman, person. Thanks to all you bloggers for my new forms of inspiration!

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  9. have been a little out of it these days but want to let you guys know that the comment you left for me here came so timely, as if somehow each of you knew what i needed at the moment. it's almost uncanny...i still don't quite have the right words to express how i good i feel about it. your words have stayed on my mind and it helps against some doubts and resistance i have...

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  10. so lovely, that last image is esp beautiful.

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  11. nice work! i hear ya about wanting to get back into it. Do it to it! Have u shown your work to museums/galleries? They def. qualify, in my opinion! The more I look @ your entries, the more I can't wait to go up there!

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  12. Oh Noodle King... It's been a long time since I've seen you in real life! I still remember following those little pieces of blue tape around campus... oh how I miss those days. I still think back to that sunny day at Taughannock for Jade's birthday. That big bucket of strawberries from Wegman's surely symbolized pure joy. Life seemed to be much simpler back then, eh? We have to catch up... I'm graduating soon, and will be moving to the other side of the planet at the end of May. I have lots of news to tell you!

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